Bring Them Home
by Hedgi
Summary: Part of History Repeats, set after chapter 12 of A fading Hope Song and story to "Bring Him Home" Four mothers spend the night in memory, thought, and prayer- Come home. Be safe. I love you. Come Home. (Ken's mother is a character but not in the character list?)


**Am I productive or what? This is me not wanting to do homework. I've had this idea floating around for a while now...**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the music or the lyrics or the characters. I did make up some stuff though...**

_Bring them home _

_God on high_

_Hear my prayer_

_In my need_

_You have always been there_

* * *

Nancy Takaishi bowed her head and folded her arms. The note T.K. had left glowed on her laptop screen, and pierced her heart. _Mom, Dad. I'm in the digital world. Will be back soon. Don't worry. I love you, T.K._

How? How could she not worry, with her world falling a part at the seams? Her oldest son so hurt, and no one knowing how to help him, and now her baby, who had risked his life so often risking it again? Gone, without her saying to him- goodbye. Be careful. I love you. Come home.

_Father in Heaven_, she prayed fervently, _watch over my boys, as You have for so long. You have been in our lives, Your miracles, so much. Please, help us. Help me. You can do anything, please. Protect them._

She had offered this prayer so many times. During the divorce, during the years that followed when all she'd seen of Matt was a few hours for Christmas- Watch over him.

And then when this had all started, years ago. When she'd watched her T.K. ride off on a monster, into the fog- when she'd though she'd lost everyone. Nancy had thought then, with her children both lost in that fog, that she'd known helplessness. But now she realized that was nothing compared to now. She had been able to go to them, to her boys and even Hiroki, then. Not now.

All she could do now, in this dark hospital, was wait. And hope. And pray.

So she did, pleading-

_Keep them safe. Bring them back to me._

* * *

_She is young_

_She's afraid_

_Let her rest_

_Heaven blessed._

* * *

Toshiko Takenouchi lay awake, feeling more alone than ever. Haruhiko was out of the city on business, as he often was in the fall- but it wasn't the _alone_ that worried her and kept her tossing and turning. It was Sora.

Sora, her daughter, whom she loved so desperately- was missing. Gone. Taken.

She thought her heart would break when Sora's friend called, Cody, to tell her. _ I shouldn't have let her go! I should have kept her here, safe, she's hurt, she's just a child!_

But these were empty thoughts. Sora would have found away to go. She always did. She was growing up so quickly, that Toshiko thought one day she'd blink and her darling little bird, her Sora would be off with her own family.

_But for all that- her love and bravery- she's still my child. She'll always be my baby. She's so brave._

Sometimes Toshiko thought her daughter too brave, too willing to run into trouble, too willing to risk her own safety. How much easier it would have been if Sora had wanted to stay, and be still, and not fight. But then she wouldn't be Sora.

_My baby, I love you. I love you so much. Please be safe. Please be with your friends, all together and not hurting, not scared. If only I could be there with you, hold you in my arms. I know you say you are too old for hugs and kisses, but-_

_Oh Sora. I wish you were safe and sound here at home. Please be safe and sound wherever you are, my sparrow, my sky, my Sora._

* * *

_Bring him home_

* * *

Aina Ichijoji opened the door to her son's room, hoping against hope that he had returned already, that he was abed, with Wormmon beside him. He was not.

_Come home._

* * *

_Bring him home_

* * *

Yoshie Izumi looked at the clock. Past four AM. Masami had not wanted to sleep but he had, in the end. Yoshie could not. She sat at Izzy's desk, waiting for the tell-tale light of a Digiport. It would come. It would.

_Come home._

* * *

_Bring him home_

* * *

Nancy looked up from her prayer, tears filling her eyes. The sound of Matt's Machines kept humming, beeping. His body was before her but where was he? Where was his spirit?

_Come home._

* * *

_He's like the son I might have known_

_If God had granted me a son._

_The summers die_

_One by one_

_How soon they fly_

_On and on_

* * *

Izzy was growing up, that Yoshi Izumi knew. And just as she joyed in seeing her son in all but blood grow, her heart held that locked away sorrow.

Izzy grew, Izzy learned and laughed and befriended and battled.

_She and Masami had tried so hard for a child, and they had been overjoyed to learn, one midsummer day that she had at last become pregnant. _

_They had looked at names, had delighted in gifts for the baby, had started planning a move to an apartment with more room._

_19 weeks later those dreams fell apart._

_Doctors had taken her aside. after the ultrasound._

_Told her_

_Told her_

_Told her._

_Yoshie had thought she would turn into tears. There were too many problems. Her fluids were too low. He would have no kidneys. His lungs would not develop. There was nothing to be done. The baby- a boy, a son, her son- was going to die. _

_There were no miracles._

_A month later, she held him, pink and so small, not even as long as her forearm. 1 pound, 3 ounces._

_"Eiji," she breathed, holding him, watching his tight closed eyes. She gave him to Masami._

_They held him. He held their fingers._

_He lived one hour and three minutes._

_Her heart had broken as leaves fell from park trees, and she was sure it would never heal again._

_But one morning a few weeks after Eiji, their Eiji, had gone, Masami came home from work._

_Crying._

_Yoshie remembered what he'd told her. His last living relative, a cousin, had been in a car crash that morning with his wife._

_They had had a son, only a few months old._

_At first she had been angry with him- she was still in so much pain, it was still so unreal that it was over- she didn't want to hear of another dead child, another dead son._

_But Koushiro- Izzy, they had called him- had not died._

_It took Yoshie less than three seconds to say, "yes."_

_Izzy need a mother._

_She needed a child._

Izzy was not Eiji, but he was her son, just as surely and truly as the baby she had carried had been. She had held him, fed him, loved him. She was his, he was hers. He had grown so much, so quickly but he would always be the bundle of red hair that had helped her find joy again, given her something to hold tight to besides grief.

She had never compared the two again. Sometimes she wondered- would they have been friends? Would they have liked the same things?

Yoshie stared at the computer screen, tears in her eyes.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow was the birthday that no one celebrated.

They day she had lost him.

_Izzy, I can't lose you, too. I can't. Please, be safe. Be alive._

_Come home._

* * *

_Bring him peace_

_Bring him joy_

_He is young_

_He is only a boy_

* * *

Aina Ichijoji closed the door to the empty room and sat down, her back against the wall.

_He's hurting._ She thought, pain filling her heart. He had _been_ hurting for so long. Something was wrong, deeply wrong. It was more than just that he had doubted her love for him- how could she have failed that badly?- it was more than the pressure she and Yori had put on him to do his best, better than his best- it was something in his heart.

_Oh, Ken, you can tell me anything. You can tell me everything. I'm your mother._

But whatever it was, whatever he carried with him, he hadn't said. He tried to hide the darkness, but she saw it. Her eyes were clear again and she saw, and she knew.

Something had happened in the Digital world when he'd vanished for those long, terrible weeks.

When she'd lost him.

She had wished for so long that he might have joy in his life- he was always so angry, so closed off, and as he hurt, so did she. _A mother's heart aches with every one of her children's. Please, let him have friends, let him have joy._

Wormmon was as great a comfort as Ken's being home. Wormmon was a friend, not just a teammate or classmate good only for more glory, more trophies.

They laughed together.

Friends.

It warmed Aina to know that much- as much as her baby was hurting, he was not alone.

Would never be alone.

Never again.

* * *

_You can take_

* * *

Aina bit her lip. _Again._ It was that word that she hated because it meant that Ken had been alone. She had been so wrapped up in her grief- if only she could have been there, could have saved him, if only Sam was still alive- but in losing Sam she had lost Ken, first to distance and then again, when he'd left- _what if something had happened? I could have lost him forever, too._

_ Oh Ken! My little one. Come home._

* * *

_You can give_

* * *

Yoshie ran a hand across the keyboard, brushed the screen. _Izzy._

With trembling fingers she drew out the locket she wore night and day. Inside were two pictures- Eiji in one half, Izzy in the other. Her two children. How could Izzy have ever believed that becaiuse he was not born of her body she loved him less? How could she have let him think that?

_Oh Izzy! You were given to my care. Come home._

* * *

_Let her be_

* * *

Toshiko put her head in her hands, at last the tears that had threatened from the night before spilling over. Sora had changed so much since going to the digital world, had seen so much, and grown and been through so much- _I wish I could have shielded her from that-_ Toshiko thought.

_Oh Sora! Be safe. I love you, I love you, I _love you._ Come home._

* * *

_Let him live_

* * *

Nancy again cursed her stubbornness. She had been so unfair to Matt, the divorce- it had been the right thing to do, she knew, but still. She had missed out on his life. and now- he was slipping away. Fading away. What if she never got the chance to hold him again in her arms and tell him how proud she was of him- not just proud of his protection of T.K. but of _him._

_Oh Matt! You are my son too, you will always be my son. Come home._

* * *

_If I die, let me die_

* * *

"I would do anything to have you here and safe," Nancy whispered, softly. "Both of you. I would give my life to have you out of danger. Oh my boys, Oh, God in heaven, please, bring them back, take me- take me and bring them home."

* * *

"I would do anything to have you here and safe," Toshiko whispered, softly. "If only I could be in your place, and you could be home, not hurting, not afraid. I know the danger. I would fight anything to have you out of harm's way."

* * *

_Let him live_

* * *

"I hope they find you," Yoshie whispered, softly. "Oh please, let Tai and the others, let them be with you, let you all be safe. I need you all to be safe. I need to tell you again how much I love you. I need to hold you. Be safe, be safe, be safe.

* * *

"I hope you find what you need." Aina whispered, softly. " My Ken, remember how much I love you. Remember to live, don't drown in sorrow like you've been doing. It's hurting you, holding onto that dark. I love you. Please, be safe, be safe, be safe."

* * *

_Bring him home_

* * *

Yoshie looked around the dimly lit room. "Come home, Izzy."

* * *

_Bring him home_

* * *

Aina stood up, opening the door a last time. "Come home, Ken."

* * *

_Bring her home_

* * *

Toshiko wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Come home, Sora."

* * *

_Bring them home_

* * *

Nancy took Matt's hand in hers and looked again to the note- _I love you. "_Come home, T.K. Come home, Matt.

* * *

_Bring them Home._

* * *

**Well? That was one of the most emotionally exhausting things I've ever written. Please let me know what you think.**

**HNA**


End file.
